Red Sox Journal: Struggling Ellsbury gets rest day

MINNEAPOLIS — Jacoby Ellsbury was out of the starting lineup for the first time all season on Sunday. It was a move manager John Farrell has been planning for some time. He had to wait, however, for Shane...

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TIM BRITTON
Posted May. 19, 2013 @ 5:43 pm

MINNEAPOLIS — Jacoby Ellsbury was out of the starting lineup for the first time all season on Sunday.

It was a move manager John Farrell has been planning for some time. He had to wait, however, for Shane Victorino to feel healthy enough in order to plug him into center.

With the Red Sox in the midst of a stretch of 20 games in 20 days, Farrell has hoped to use this road trip to give each of his regulars a day off. Mike Napoli sat out for the first time this season on Friday night. Now that Ellsbury has missed one, Dustin Pedroia is the only Red Sox to start all 44 games in 2013.

“I just wanted to make sure that in this stretch of 20 games, we get everybody involved and give every one of our normal guys a day off,” Farrell said Sunday. “Jacoby doesn’t want to come out today. We talked about it when we landed in Tampa the other night because we had been talking about some possibilities before we left on this road trip, and they thought there might be a game where maybe this makes sense. But when we landed, it’s, ‘I don’t want to come out. I want to play every day.’”

Ellsbury is hitting .246 with a .309 on-base percentage on the season.

“It could be beneficial for him,” said Farrell. “He’s working on a number of things, as we’ve all seen and talked about. Again, it’s a day game after a night game. A number of factors lead to him being out of the lineup today.”

Farrell prefers to give his regulars the entire day off, meaning he would stay away from them in pinch-hitting spots as well. He was able to do that with Napoli even as Friday’s game went into extra innings.

“What you want to guard against is that they shut it off mentally, and then you’re going to ask them to turn it back on. That takes away from the whole benefit of an off-day,” he said. “What’s common with every guy that you talk to is that they’ll fight it initially; they don’t want to come out of the lineup. But maybe when they let down a little bit and relax mentally, they can feel their body and think, ‘You know what? This can be a good thing.’”

Farrell confessed that Pedroia is the toughest guy to get out of the lineup.

“Pedey will fight that one tooth and nail. He’s the last man standing right now, and that’s probably the way he likes it,” the manager said. “Pedey is the heartbeat of this team, and you don’t want to cut out the heart.”

Drew rests his back

Stephen Drew remained out of the lineup Sunday as he deals with soreness in his back resulting from a slide Friday night.

“It felt better getting up this morning, so that’s a good sign. It’s still there a little bit, letting me know,” Drew said. “I’ll do some throwing and hitting to see how it feels today.”

Drew wrenched his back sliding into second on an eighth-inning double in Friday’s win. The soreness is square in the middle of his back, he said.

“It is being cautious because it’s your back,” said Drew. “[Saturday] going into the cage, throwing and trying to do that motion, it wasn’t feeling too good. Throwing more so than the hitting, twisting and stuff. I actually threw first to see how that felt and it was just in the same place I felt it the night before.”

Drew is hopeful he can be back in the starting lineup Monday night in Chicago.

Pedro Ciriaco started for the second straight game at shortstop.

Bailey to rejoin club

One rehab appearance was all Andrew Bailey needs.

The Red Sox expect to activate the closer off the disabled list on Monday when they arrive in Chicago. Bailey pitched Saturday night for Pawtucket, allowing a home run in his one inning.

“He came out of last night feeling good,” Farrell said.

With Bailey coming off inflammation in his right biceps, Farrell said Boston will do its best to avoid using him on back-to-back days for some time.

Nevertheless, getting the closer back will resupply some depth to a bullpen that’s lacked it of late.

“Just getting guys back one slot earlier in the game certainly makes us stronger and gives us added depth to that pen,” said Farrell.

Dempster on track for next start

Ryan Dempster’s postgame diagnosis on Saturday was straightforward.

“I wasn’t very good tonight,” he said.

No, Dempster wasn’t at his best in Saturday’s 12-5 win over the Twins, requiring 127 pitches to record just 14 outs. Dempster threw at least 24 pitches in each of his last four innings.

Nevertheless, neither he nor Farrell expects the elevated pitch count to affect the right-hander’s next start.

“I’m a pretty good judge of my body. I’m going to do what I need to get ready,” Dempster said. “You’ve just got to go out there and recover. Recovery days are huge.”

“He did throw a lot — 127 pitches is a lot even if you go eight or nine innings,” said Farrell. “Through 4 2/3, that’s probably a little bit more taxing than you’d otherwise like to see. As hard as he works, I know he’ll be prepared for his next start when we get back off this road trip so at this point we don’t anticipate another day needed.”

Dempster has thrown at least 125 pitches eight prior times in his career. In his subsequent start, he owns an ERA of 5.29. (On the plus side, he’s pitched at least six innings in seven of those eight follow-up starts.)

Without any scheduled off days coming up, Dempster is slated to take the hill on normal rest Thursday against the Indians. Only twice has he thrown more than 125 pitches in a game and then started on four days’ rest the next time through the rotation. He’s gone seven innings, allowing three earned runs on each of those occasions.